PB2360: QUALITY OF LIFE AND TREATMENT SATISFACTION AMONG PATIENTS UNDER LONG-TERM ANTICOAGULANT THERAPY WITH VITAMIN K ANTAGONISTS
Authors: A. Varaklioti, S. Nika, A. Papachronis, A. Chanos, S. Gkotsi, T. Pyrpyri, T. Sergentanis, M. Gavalaki, O. Katsarou
Journal: HemaSphere (2022)

Background: Many patients receive long-term treatment with anticoagulants, mainly vitamin K antagonists (VKAs), after atrial fibrillation (AF), mechanical heart valve replacement and thromboembolic disease (deep venous thromboembolism-DVT and/or pulmonary embolism-PE). Although in the past few years, new oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have been introduced, VKAs are still used widely for certain conditions. Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients under anticoagulant therapy after DVT, PE or AF and to assess convenience and satisfaction of their anticoagulant treatment with vitamin K antagonists. Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study of adult patients who visit our anticoagulation clinic and receive anticoagulant therapy for more than 1 year after DVT, PE or AF. The research was conducted from November 2020 to April 2021. Quality of life was assessed using SF-36 questionnaire, while Convenience and Satisfaction of anticoagulant treatment were assessed based on the Perception of Anticoagulation Treatment Questionnaire 2 (PACT-Q2). Results: A total of 67 patients were recruited in the study. The mean value of the physical component health score (PCS) of SF36 was 42.13, while the mean value of mental component health score (MCS) was 44.02. Differences were observed in QoL between certain sociodemographic characteristics, namely gender, educational level and employment status. More specifically, male patients showed higher mean values in both PCS and MCS (47.6 and 49.5 respectively) compared to women (36.2 and 42.5) (p<0.01). Patients with higher education level showed higher mean values in MCS (52.96) compared to those with lower educational level (41.2) (p<0.01). Patients whose main employment was housekeeping exhibited significantly lower mean values in both PCS and MCS (29.93 and 27.19 respectively) compared to patients in retirement (45.59 in PCS and 43.56 in MCS, respectively) (p<0.01) or public workers (48.59 in PCS and 54.04 in MCS, respectively). Regarding convenience and satisfaction of anticoagulant therapy, scores in both Convenience and Satisfaction subscales of PACT-Q2 were high (Convenience score: 71.45 and Satisfaction score: 71.28). Statistically significant differences were observed between male and female patients in both convenience (male: 72.6 vs female: 62.4, p=0.05) and satisfaction scores (male: 60.5 vs female: 48.5, p=0.02). No differences were observed in either Quality of Life or Convenience and Satisfaction of anticoagulant treatment among different types of disease. Summary/Conclusion: Quality of life of patients under anticoagulant therapy after venous thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism or atrial fibrillation was found to be moderately satisfactory. Gender and employment status appear to adversely affect patients’ quality of life, with women working as housekeepers showing lower scores on both overall physical and overall mental dimension of SF36. Moreover, the high level of education was positively correlated with quality of life, with university-level participants showing higher scores in the overall mental dimension of SF-36. Furthermore, gender is one of the demographic factors that affects the convenience and satisfaction of anticoagulant treatment, with women having lower scores than men.